1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to aircraft and, in particular, to aircraft cabins. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for attaching structures to the floor of a cabin in an aircraft.
2. Background
An aircraft cabin may be a portion of an aircraft that passengers may occupy during flight. An aircraft cabin may also be referred to just as a cabin or a passenger cabin. An aircraft cabin may have various sections. For example, without limitation, an aircraft cabin may have a passenger area, a galley, storage areas, lavatories, and other suitable areas.
Within the passenger area, seats may be arranged in rows and aisles. These seats may be attached to the floor structure of the aircraft through tracks. These tracks may have a C-shaped channel.
Attachment systems at the bottom of the seats may be secured to the tracks to secure the seats to the floor structure. Closets, lavatory walls, cabinets, and other monuments may be secured to the floor structure of the aircraft within the cabin in a similar fashion.
The use of seat tracks also may allow flexibility in reconfiguring the cabin. For example, without limitation, the pitch and/or distance between rows of seats may be adjusted by moving the seats along the rails in the floor of the passenger cabin during maintenance and service of the aircraft. In a similar fashion, newer seats may replace older seats by removing the older seats from the rails and securing the newer seats to the rails. Also, closets, lavatories, and other monuments may be removed, reconfigured, and/or moved in the passenger cabin during maintenance and/or service.
Although many passenger cabins employ tracks with C-shaped channels, some aircraft may employ different types of tracks. With different tracks, seats and other monuments may require a different type of attachment system to secure those structures to the tracks. Offering different types of attachment systems may increase the cost to manufacturers of those structures.
Further, in some cases, the manufacturers of seats and/or different types of monuments may be unwilling to and/or unable to manufacture seats and/or other monuments with the needed attachment systems. This situation may result in having fewer choices in selecting seats and/or monuments for a passenger cabin. In some cases, some types of seats and/or monuments may be unavailable for the passenger cabin, because these structures may not have the attachment system needed for a particular type of track.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus to overcome the issues described above.